The Existence of the External World : The Pascal-Hume Principle

Table of Contents

• TABLE OF CONTENTS 7
• FOREWORD 13
• INTRODUCTION 15
• CHAPTER ONE: THE CARTESIAN REVOLUTION 21
• The Cartesian conception 22
• The Cogito 24
• Beyond the Cogito 28
• CHAPTER TWO: THE COPERNICAN REVOLUTION IN PHILOSOPHY 31
• The need to justify physical laws 32
• The criticism of Kantianism 34
• CHAPTER THREE: THE FOUNDATIONS OF PROBABILITY THEORY 39
• The probabilist prediction 41
• Critique of the classical conception 43
• Difficulties in the empiricist position 46
• The two levels of probability 48
• CHAPTER FOUR: THE NATURE OF EXPLANATION 51
• The two forms of explanation 51
• Geometrical demonstrations 53
• The two aspects of foundation 55
• Geometry and probability theory 56
• The two aspects of reason 60
• CHAPTER FIVE: THE EXISTENCE OF THE EXTERNAL WORLD 63
• The Pascal-Hume principle 64
• The Kantian conception of a priori possibility 68
• The cheater experiment 73
• The foundation of induction 75
• CHAPTER SIX: THE PRINCIPLE OF SUFFICIENT REASON 77
• Explanation and prediction 77
• The principle of sufficient reason 78
• CHAPTER SEVEN: THE SECOND REVOLUTION IN METAPHYSICS 85
• Physics' solution 87
• The Kantian solution 90
• The categories of understanding 92
• The cheater experiment 97
• The internal causality of ideas 99
• CHAPTER EIGHT: THE EXISTENCE OF MATTER 101
• The union of the body and soul 101
• Solipsism 103
• The possibility of matter 105
• The nature of matter 106
• The origin of the world 108
• Conclusion 108
• CONCLUSION 111
• INDEX OF NAMES 115